Mobile broadband costs to drop in UK

Price war is set to benefit consumers

UK mobile providers have started a price war to entice customers to take up the new way to connect on the move, following a report stating 10 per cent of the country has been sold the wrong package.

O2 and Virgin Media have both slashed their prices in the wake of the report, which claimed users thought the cost of maintaining the service was too much, the coverage too poor, and the lack of bundled Wi-Fi not giving a valuable service.

It has to be said O2 commissioned the report and then coincidentally dropped prices based on its findings, reducing the cost of its core tariffs to £15 per month for a 3GB allowance.

Heavy users can also get a £30 per month tariff for 10GB of data, although they have to tie themselves in for two years.

O2 has also disabled automatic roaming on the service to stop people being hit with huge bills for connecting abroad, following a slew of horror stories in the media.

Loyalty rewarded

Virgin Media, which uses T-Mobile's 3.5G coverage, is making its package available to L and XL users for now £5 per month, and £10 to all other newcomers.

However, users only get a paltry 1GB allowance per month for this service, although they are only locked in for 12 months.

Mobile broadband pick-up is growing rapidly in the UK, although many users still feel it is too pricey for the data allowances given, although many companies are working to lower the cost.